Stop! Don’t take a restroom break!

Look at the image. (A Reddit user posted this abominable circular pasted in a company located in the USA). 

Doesn’t that sound so ridiculous? But don’t be alarmed. That’s how many companies across the world function nowadays. 

Time is precious. 

Agree, but when did companies start treating staff who go for a leak (during office time) as criminals since?

Companies often base their rules upon staff wasting time at restrooms, helping themselves with many cuppas at the coffee machine, chatting at the desks, browsing, checking (personal) e-mails and spending time on smartphones etc.

They impose strict rules so that staff put in more productive hours than wasting time during those needless breaks.

Remember what Mr. Narayana Murthy of Infosys said? He asked the younger generation in India to spend 70 or more hours in office so that India would become a superpower soon. And you know how outraged the social media were.

My boss was worse. He was Asian-British.

 

I worked for a multinational media company based in the UK. We had employees from all parts of the world, including people who are native British. 

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On Fridays, he made sure he would stand at the exit and wish the British and the non-Asian staff a ‘happy weekend’. 

He would appear at where most of the Asian staff (on work visas) worked and tell them to finish up the day’s job however late it might take. Some he would ask to report to work on weekends too. How audacious!

He had staff exclusively to monitor employees taking breaks. There were occasions he showed CCTV footage that helped him count how many pieces of pizza staff ate during meetings. He was so disgusting.

The emphasis, as they say, might be to increase productivity, but the question is; at what cost?

The image we see, asking staff to ‘use restrooms before the start of work’ evokes laughter in the first place. Will the staff hold up when they feel like going for a leak? 

And the company, as the circular says, will deem those who take a restroom-break after punching-in to have committed a “time clock fraud”. They might be getting the boot. How sad!

The image sent the social media into a fit of anger and one aggrieved customer asked; “Funny how they don’t mention the time clock fraud of telling you to work over a scheduled hour or work through breaks”.

This will surely make most employees lose motivation to work. 

If you keep them at the desk for longer hours without a break, they will appear to be busy working rather than seriously working. 

As the saying goes, it takes two to tango.